Grusonia pulchella

Beautiful club-cholla, Beautiful Club-Cholla

Family: Cactaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Beautiful club-cholla is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native perennial found in the southern eastern desert bioregion on borders of dry lakes and sandy flats at elevations of 1,500 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces pink-magenta flowers with green to yellow filaments nestled among distinctive club-shaped cactus segments. Growing as a compact perennial less than 0.2 meters in diameter, it forms clumped stems 10 to 20 centimeters tall with narrowly club-shaped segments. Its cactus segments have sparse spines less than 6 centimeters long, with bulbous bases and sharp angles, surrounded by distinctive glochids up to 1.5 centimeters long. The fruit is fleshy and red, typically 2 to 3 centimeters long and covered with numerous thin, crowded spines.

Habitat: Borders of dry lakes, sandy flats

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: 1500-1700 m

Bioregions: SNE

California counties: Inyo, Mono

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.